Concord Township volunteer Adam Cook honored with national prize

During this summer’s donation drive for Heartbeat of a Teddy Bear, founder Adam Cook helped a cancer-surviving girl and her family book a free night stay at Kalahari Resorts. It just so happens the date they scheduled, Jan. 11, is the same day Cook will be going on his own weeklong trip with 39 other charity leaders nationwide.
The 33-year-old Concord Township resident was one of two community volunteers selected by MealTrain.com in October for the Cabot Community Celebrity Award. As part of the award, he and his girlfriend, Briana Russ of Mentor, were invited to a six-day cruise hosted by the Cabot Creamery Cooperative.
“I am honored by it, but there are so many other people that do other things in this world,” Cook said, adding that any of the volunteers he works with could’ve been awarded with the same prize.
Cook is the founder of two charitable drives, Heartbeat of a Teddy Bear, and Operation S.T.A.T. Both branch from his nonprofit organization Rain Man Charities.
Heartbeat of a Teddy Bear was formed in 2012, months following the Chardon High School shooting and started out as a teddy bear drive for victims of the shooting. A parent of one of the victims suggested Cook donate the remainder of the bears to University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.
Since then, the group has targeted helping patients at the Cleveland hospital.
“The whole idea of the teddy bear run is to give the patients someone to talk to,” Cook said.
In 2012, he and his group donated 725 teddy bears. In 2013, his group donated 1,500 teddy bears, $3,500 in merchandise, and a $1,500 check to the hospital’s Child Life Services, Cook said.
In addition, the group “adopted” three families of previously hospitalized children, including the one going to Kalahari. The other two include one that received a swing set in their backyard and another that received a Power Wheels motorcycle, Cook said.
The other charity, Operation S.T.A.T. (Standing Tall for American Troops) was formed in 2011 and donates Christmas stockings to hospitalized veterans.
Cook said he never served in the military, but many of his siblings have, including his brother, two uncles and an aunt.
“I live by the motto that although I wasn’t able to serve with them in battle, I will serve for them,” Cook said. “I wasn’t around during the Vietnam era, but I will make sure nothing like that happens again to the American soldier.”
The first year, Cook and his group of 15 volunteers donated 60 stockings to the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In 2012, the number of stockings grew to 725, with more then 100 volunteers helping, he said.
This past Christmas, Cook and his system of volunteers delivered 2,000 stockings to five VA medical centers or clinics in Cleveland, Sandusky, Dayton, Erie, Pa., and Temple, Texas.
“By 2017, I want to cover 152 VA medical centers across the country,” Cook said.